Understanding Londonistan

Today marks the one-year anniversary of Britain's rude awakening to the wolf in its midst. One would have thought that after the horror and alarm 7/7 the Brit's would have taken strong steps to root out the radical clerics preaching hate and martyrdom from the mosques of Whitechaple and Leeds. But that is not the case. It appears that our cousins have allowed themselves to be cowed by the threat of political backlash.

The British Left has joined with the jihadis to block key provisions of Tony Blair anti-terrorism campaign. As Melanie Phillips has written in her book truly frightening book "Londonistan," "The Islamic jihad has turned into the armed wing of the British Left." By fervently bowing before the altar of multiculturalism, Briton's head is now upon the block. It's a form of cultural suicide.

How Britain got to this point is a lesson in national complacency, and one that must be well heeded by this country. Melanie Phillips observes that Britain allowed itself to lose control of its borders, and those who questioned the immigration trends were silenced with cries of "racism."

"The prevailing culture of non-discriminatory entitlement and minority rights meant the courts came to thwart all government attempts to enforce immigration controls. At root was the judges' belief that the citizens of the world were entitled to exactly the same rights as the citizens of Britain. The result has been the deconstruction of British citizenship and the loss of sovereignty over national borders, laws and values."

How quickly has the face of Britain changed? Last year it was reported by the Hindustani Times:

More people in Britain attend mosques than the Church of England. It is for the first time that Muslims have overtaken Anglicans. According to figures 930,000 Muslims attend a place of worship at least once a week, whereas only 916,000 Anglicans do the same. Muslim leaders are now claiming that, given such a rise of Islam in Britain, Muslims should receive a share of the privileged status of the Church of England.

The sensibility of the First Amendment's separation of Church and State could not be more clear, could it?

But what is even more alarming is the nature of the message being disemminated to a million British Muslims every week. As Amir Tehari writes in today's Wall Street Journal (sorry, subscription required - email me):

"We have more religious freedom in Britain than in any Muslim country," says Aazam Tamimi, a pro-Hamas British Islamist. "Our grievances against Britain are not religious but political." And that is the heart of the problem. Convinced that they can never agree on a common understanding of Islam, Muslim sects in Britain have sought unity based on a political program: Islam, in its broadest expression in Britain, is a political movement. It has adopted part of the anticapitalist discourse of communism, adding to it some anti-Semitic and anti-Christian themes of Nazism, and completing the mix with Third-Worldist lamentations against racism and imperialism. This Islam is an ideology masquerading as a religious faith.

Few sermons delivered at British mosques deal with theology, and none allows God more than a cameo role. Instead, they rage about Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Chechnya, Kashmir. They are designed to portray Muslims as victims of a great "Judeo-Crusader conspiracy" led by the U.S., with Britain, Australia, Denmark and Israel, to name but a few, acting as its minions.

The Islamofacist "big lie" is evidently having some effect:

The Pew survey echoes the results of a YouGov poll last year, which showed that 6% of British Muslims, over 100,000 individuals, believed that the 7/7 attacks had been justified. In the same poll, 24% said they were prepared to help terrorists, if needed, while 56% said they understood the reasons for the attacks. More importantly, 1% -- some 16,000 -- said they were prepared to join terrorist operations in the name of Islam. That a significant number of would-be terrorists might be present within the Muslim community in Britain is the main hypothesis of the so-called Rich Picture undercover operation launched by British intelligence in the wake of 7/7. According to intelligence sources quoted by the British press, some 8,000 persons, all "British born and bred Muslims," are under investigation as "al Qaeda sympathizers."

So as England mourns it's murdered citizens today, it would be wise for we as Americans to reflect on the hard lessons learned, and no doubt to be learned again, by our Cousins across the Pond. The War on Terror is not a war against Islam, it is a war against a political shadow-state masquerading as a religion. But once entrenched in a free society, the virus is difficult to eradicate without damaging the host. We must guard against those who would use our freedoms to destroy them.

I hope Washington is paying attention.